Richard Torbett, ABPI’s chief executive said: “This is a very serious and unsubstantiated assertion that is without foundation, and is categorically untrue.”
The U.S. administration is demanding that pharma companies invest in the U.S., lower drug prices to Americans and increase prices in Europe — or face up to 100 percent tariffs and much lower prices.
Several drugmakers have announced recent pauses in their plans to invest in the U.K.: AstraZeneca said Sept. 12 it would put a planned £200 million expansion of its Cambridge research site on ice. That came months after it announced it would ax a £450 million vaccine plant in Liverpool.
U.S. pharma giant Merck/MSD also announced on Sept. 10 it would be scrapping a planned £1 billion expansion of its U.K. operations, saying the government is not investing enough in the sector.
And Mounjaro-maker Eli Lilly has shelved a London lab, part of a £279 million investment package, first announced Aug. 1.
Its CEO told the FT last week that Britain is “probably the worst country in Europe” for drug prices.
